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This is my 'Computer Corner', where all the action takes place! The PC is self-built. The processor is a Pentium 4 3Ghz with 1GB of RAM. The motherboard is a Gigabyte 8S648FXP-RZ(-C) with the SiS 648FX Chipset. The hard disks are one IDE and one SATA. I'd heard so much about SATA being faster that I thought I'd try one to see if the PC would boot up quicker. Well, it didn't! So I decided to reinstall the old HD as the boot drive and put the SATA in as a second drive to store some of my programs & applications, plus downloads and data, and this works well. The computer case is an Antec Super Midi Tower case. It has what they call a "Solution Series Smartpower" power supply, which as far as I know means that the cooling fan spins faster the more demand you put on the power supply, so most of the time the fan should be reasonably quiet. My highly scientific test of PC quietness is to sit across the other the side of the room and watch TV, and if the sound from the PC is not too obtrusive, then it passes! The Antec passed the test. The power button, floppy drive and DVD drive are accessed by opening a door at the top front of the case. I also like the sideways position of the HD bays - you can see these in the picture on the left. Its much easier to manipulate the drives like that. The down side is that you are supposed to fasten some supplied rails onto the sides of the disk to make them more secure, but I can't be bothered with that, I just slide them in as they are! The graphics card is an nVidia Geforce FX5900XT - rather old tech by now, but its adequate for my purposes. I recently upgraded my monitor from a Philips 15" model to an Optronix OP-7005L 17" TFT LCD (from Microdirect). The picture is much better - the colours are more vivid - and I really enjoy the bigger screen, it's much less strain on the eyes. Also, it is guaranteed for one year against dead pixels. Handy! The scanner is a Canon Canoscan Lide 20. Excellent product, reasonably fast and it has 3 buttons on the front (see the pic on the left) which you can use to avoid loading in software first. The Scan button calls up the Canoscan Toolbox, where you can select various options. The Copy button is useful as you can quickly use the scanner as a photocopier. The printer is a Canon S330. I use Canon printers in my working life and I've found them to be good reliable workhorses, and if I ever need to contact Canon about something, they are always helpful. And there are no problems with refilling the cartridges, although I only refill the black ones, the colour ones are too much bother! |
| Examples of Computer Abuse |
| A Real Case. Someone took | ||
| "Enter card details" literally! | A computer virus victim, maybe? | Yuk. Have you checked yours lately? |
coolthegeek <at> lavabit <dot> c_o_m